“This is… mine?”
“Yes,” I growl passionately. “You deserve it. This is where you’ll chase your dreams, where you’ll make your mark on the world.”
“Oh my God! I love it. Thank you so much.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I love you. It’s the least I could do.”
“Yeah but still… Wait.”
She turns and stares up at me.
Or she tries to stare up at me.
But I’m not standing over her anymore.
I kneel before her, staring up at her, reaching up to clasp her hands.
“You heard me right,” I tell her. “I love you, Lucy Scott. I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I know how crazy that sounds. I know people will find it difficult to believe. But I don’t give a damn. Because I know you’ll believe me, and that’s all that matters. I love you.”
“I love you too.” She gasps, reaching down to touch my face, as though she can’t stand there being space between us. “I love you so much. I’m so glad you feel the same.”
“Of course, I do,” I say. “I love you more than I could ever explain. I need to be with you forever, and I need the whole world to know who you belong to. I need to wake up to you every morning and fall asleep next to you every night. I need – need, you Lucy – to raise a family with you, and support you as you follow your dreams. I love you, Lucy Scott…”
I reach into my inside pocket and take out the ring box, opening it with a fluid movement, letting her see the diamond ring. The stone is large but elegant, with a curved surface set within a white gold band.
“Will you marry me?”
She gazes at the ring for a long moment, her mouth falling open like she can’t quite believe this.
“Yes,” she cries once the stunned seconds pass. “Yes, yes, yes.”
I slide the ring onto her finger and leap to my feet, wrapping my arms around her hips and pulling her close to me. She gasps when I crush my lips against hers, pressing solidly, letting her feel the relief, the hope, the love, and the gratitude burning in the embrace.
“I love you so much,” she whimpers, dragging her hands through my hair.
“I love you,” I growl. “It’s me and you, Lucy…”
“Forever,” she whispers.
“Forever,” I say, and kiss her again, harder.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lucy
“You’ll be fine,” Maria says, placing her hand on mine and offering me a warm smile.
I return her smile and then look out over the pond, the water glittering on the surface. Toto swims with his head raised above the water like a proper little gentleman, his mouth open in a wide grin with his tongue lolling out.
I want to claw onto Maria’s words, to believe that I can get through this without stuttering or somehow ruining the moment.
Excitement is the main emotion that rumbles through me, but despite everything, there will always be a tiny anxious voice inside of me.
But with Luca and Maria and Aldo and Toto, the voice is getting quieter and quieter. And I’m starting to think that maybe one day it will be so quiet I can ignore it entirely.
“I know. Do you think he’ll be angry at me for telling you first?”
Maria rolls her eyes and then throws her hands up dramatically. The movement is so over the top she almost tosses her hat clean off her head. “Oh yes,” she says sarcastically. “I think it’s going to send him on a warpath.”
“Okay, I get it. I’m being dramatic.”
She gives my hand a squeeze. “I’m only teasing. It’s natural to be nervous. But I’ve seen the way you two are together these past two weeks. Since he proposed. You’re like teenagers in love, the way you look at each other… honestly, it makes me jealous. It makes me think I should give the whole dating thing another try.”
“You should,” I tell her. “You deserve to be happy too.”
“There you go.” She grins. “So you admit it… you are deliriously, insanely, amazingly happy.”
“Well yeah.” I giggle. “That sort of goes without saying.”
“Then don’t worry so much. He’s going to be ecstatic.”
I mutter a silent prayer that she’s right, repeating it throughout the day as we have lunch and then I spend the afternoon in the library, at my desk, working on my designs. I’ve already hired some freelancers to help with the work, and soon I’ll start establishing myself in the city office.
I like working in the library. The walls are tall and covered in bookshelves, the smell musty and welcoming.
Toto sleeps in a ball in the sun, his tail tucked under his head, snoring contentedly.
“Lucy,” my man says from the door, his voice husky.
I turn, my aching eyes telling me I’ve been in here longer than I realized. Despite all the excitement bubbling up inside of me, my work has managed to compel my attention and make me forget… for a little while.
But now that Luca is here I can’t contain it.
I leap to my feet, causing Toto to whine and glare at me for interrupting his slumber.
“Lucy? What is it?”
My fiancé strides into the library, the sun catching his navy suit and glittering over his iron hair. He stops a few inches short of me, his smile wide and consuming, his eyes hopeful.
I think he knows what I’m going to say, but he wants to wait. He doesn’t want to take this moment from me.
I love him so much for that.
I press my hands against his chest, clawing onto the solid muscles of my man, my husband-to-be, the father to my children.
“We’re pregnant, Luca,” I whisper, and then say the words louder, with more budding confidence. “We’re pregnant.”
“What?” he roars out in delight, sliding his arms around me and lifting me off my feet.
He spins me around, both of us laughing, both of us drunk on this moment.
“Are you sure?” he says, putting me down and squeezing onto my shoulders tightly like he never wants to let me go.
“I’m sure,” I say. “I did four tests. Maria knows. I had to tell her, you know, for support.”
“It makes me so happy to see how close you two have become.” He smiles widely, not at all bothered about me telling her first. “This is amazing. This is everything I ever dreamed of. Goddamn, I love you.”
He kisses me hard, pleasure coursing through my body, surging up and down and making every part of me hot, boiling.
“And I love you.” He breaks off the kiss and leans down, kissing my belly.
“Uh oh.” I laugh when Toto comes running over, leaping around and panting up at Luca. “I think somebody’s jealous.”
Luca chuckles and scoops the little dog up, cradling him to his chest. It’s so easy to imagine him holding our child instead, cradling them with his softness, surprising for a man as hulking and powerful as him.
“This is it, Lucy,” he says, leaning over to kiss me lovingly on the forehead.
“This is what?” I ask.
“Us, our future, our life. This is it.”
“Forever,” I whisper.
I clasp onto him, resting my head on his chest, Toto’s fur grazing me softly. Sunlight infuses me, making me warm with happiness, contentment, and love.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Luca
I cradle Elizabeth close to my chest, rocking her back and forth, continuously stunned at the love that pours out of me with more and more strength each moment. It’s been the same since Lucy brought her into this world, the instant love, devotion, the protective impulses which I direct toward her and her mother.
We’re sitting in the nursery that was once my own, where, once upon a time, a woman named Elizabeth tended to me. I had to stifle down tears of pure joy when Lucy suggested that we name our firstborn after my mother.
Morning sunlight shafts in through the window, flooding us with light.
I rock her slowly, smiling down at her, and then across
the room to where Lucy lies in the corner. She’ll often fall asleep in the chair next to the crib after feeding her at night, sometimes sleeping here until Elizabeth cries her awake.
My mind floods with fresh need when I look at her, a need which surprised her when I kissed her passionately weeks after the birth.
“I can’t believe you still want me,” she said. “Look at me. I’m…”
I kissed her again, silencing her words.
I knew what she was going to say.
She’s heavier from the pregnancy. She hasn’t had time to bathe as much… or she’s so sleep-deprived she never feels clean. It all comes with the territory of being a new mother.
And it all makes me want her more.
Even now, in her baggy hoodie and her loose-fitting sweatpants, I have to focus hard not to let my desire flare. I focus on the love I hold for her instead, the warmth that lights up my insides when she moans in her sleep, stretching and turning as if to find a more comfortable position in the chair.
“You’re so lucky,” I whisper to my daughter, kissing her impossibly small forehead. “You’ve got the greatest mother in the world. She’s always going to be there for you. I am too. I promise.”
“Don’t stop,” Lucy murmurs, eyes still closed.
I smile. “Are you pretending to be asleep?”
“Nah uh.” She grins, magnetizing my heart, making me want to sing with pure joy. “I’m just sleep-listening. It’s a skill every mom has to develop.”
I chuckle, my heart shattering and fusing together in an instant when Elizabeth murmurs sleepily up at me.
Her little eyes blink open and closed, a spit bubble popping. I dab her chin with my shirt, not giving a damn if I’ll have baby spittle on me for work.
“We’re going to give you the best childhood we possibly can,” I say, voice husky with emotion. “We’re going to raise you to work hard, at what you love… we’re always going to support you. We’ll never let anything happen to you. We love you, Elizabeth, and we’re never going to let you forget that.”
“Even when you’re a teenager and you’re sick of us.” Lucy giggles, opening her eyes and sitting up. “Do you think that’ll ever happen?”
I nod with a smile. “Teenagers always rebel. But she’ll come back to us. Look at her. She’s the cutest little thing that ever existed. She doesn’t have a shred of true hatred in her.”
Lucy stands and walks across the room, places her hand on my shoulder, and leans down to kiss me on the cheek. I turn and catch her lips, and we share a quick moment of heat.
We end it quickly. Her post-pregnancy hormones have made her even more vivacious and excitable than usual, and we both know where it could all too easily lead.
She takes the seat next to me.
I lift Elizabeth a little, offering her.
“No.” Lucy shakes her head, placing her chin on her hands, her engagement and wedding rings glinting in the morning sun. “I love watching you hold her. You’re so delicate.”
“Delicate.” I chuckle warmly. “There’s a word I never thought would be used to describe me. But you’ve changed me, Lucy, for the better. You have no idea how proud I am to call you my wife.”
Our wedding was glorious, with Lucy proudly displaying her bump beneath the dress, walking elegantly down the aisle with Maria at her side. We were both honored when Maria offered to do that. Aldo stood beside me, beaming as my best man, and little Toto was the ring bearer, though the rascal got lost halfway up the aisle and a couple of my men had to chase him down while we all laughed.
“I mean it,” I tell her firmly. “Your business has only been open for, what, half a year? And you’re already making inroads into the big stores. I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you.” She beams. “I love you, husband.”
I grin.
She loves calling me husband. As we sat in the limo on our way from the wedding to the reception, she whispered close to me, so her breath painted my ear, “I’m going to call you husband every chance I get, so get used to it.”
I smiled and laid a tender kiss on her forehead.
“Only if you don’t mind me calling you wife every chance I get,” I told her.
Now I smile wider at her, this woman who has changed my life in all the best ways possible.
“I love you, wife.”
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
TEN YEARS LATER
Lucy
I stand on the balcony, the air shimmering from the heat of the barbecue grill, smiling as Maria flips a burger and her husband, Reginald, cheers and claps his hands together.
Maria and Reginald are the perfect match, both loud, both hilarious, both independent but happy to be together.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Give it a break, you wicked man,” Maria says, all banter and fun. “I knew I could do it. You were distracting me with your loathsome smile.”
I giggle and turn to the garden below, my heart feeling like it’s going to float out of my chest and kiss the sky when my gaze moves over my family.
There’s Aldo sitting in the lawn chair next to the pool – the new pool we recently had installed – with old Toto in his lap, stroking him softly.
And then there’s my man and our children, all of them splashing around the water, making mayhem and memories.
If the citizens of this great city could see their mayor now, they might think his stern demeanor is a façade.
He leaps out of the water, roaring and splashing around, as Elizabeth swims away from him and the twins – Jack and Billy – rush toward him, laughing as they jump toward their father. Lila sticks close to Elizabeth, bobbing in her inflatable, our oldest keeping a close watch on her little sister like she always does.
I giggle as he chases the boys around, and our rambunctious five-year-olds do everything in their power to tackle their hulking father.
At fifty-two, Luca is somehow more muscular, stronger, sturdier, and more handsome than he’s ever been. His muscles gleam in the afternoon sun as he lifts the boys over his head, one in each hand.
“We’re flying,” Billy cries.
“Higher, Daddy, higher,” Jack sings.
My heart soars when I think about all we’ve worked for over this past decade, with my fashion business soaring as high as Luca’s political career. All of Luca’s businesses are legitimate now, and our city has the lowest crime rate on the east coast with him as mayor. With his underworld connections and his business savvy ways, Luca has attracted investors and businesses to further enrich the city.
He’s started charities and volunteers at a martial arts center for underprivileged kids.
But through it all – through the travel and the awards and the work – we always find time to spend together as a family.
We never forget why we work so hard.
“Mommy, look,” Billy yells, waving his arms up at me. “Jack, look, look at Mommy.”
Jack turns to me, the boys competing to see who can break my heart the quickest with their wide smiles. I wave down at them and then catch Luca’s eyes, his smile mirroring our sons’, getting wider and fuller with each moment.
After over a decade of marriage, we can reach each other better than our reflections.
Deep gratitude moves through us both, a silent moment of pure thankfulness, that this is ours. We made it.
We built a life worth being proud of.
And we’re only just getting started.
Splash.
The twins fall into the water and pop back up, laughing like mad, as love flurries around my heart.
NEWSLETTER
Get a free, new, original story NOW by joining my mailing list and staying subscribed.
CLICK HERE >> Get a FREE book now
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
<
br /> Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter
Book 49: Steamy
Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend
Book 51: Possessive Professor
Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter
Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby
Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day
Book 55: Doctor Next Door
Book 56: Possessive Policeman
Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter
Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter
Model for the Mob: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Page 13